A bidet is used for washing the genital and anal areas using cleaning water of appropriate temperature sprayed from the center of the bidet, instead of a toilet paper after relief stool.
Although such a bidet has been developed originally for washing the pubic area for females, now it is popular among people of all ages and both sexes, since it is known to be more hygienic to wash the anus with water instead of paper after relief. Cleansing the pubic/anal regions with water avoids germ infection, and is very useful for preventing hemorrhoids and other anal disease. In addition, it is very effective for women with gynecology diseases. It is also very useful for the elderly or obese people to relieve themselves with great convenience.
As shown in FIG. 1, such a bidet is composed of a bidet body 2001 rested on top of a toilet bowl and having a water container for storing filtered tap water, a bidet/cleansing nozzle (or an anus-cleansing nozzle) 2002 for spraying the stored cleansing water to the pubic area or anal region according to a user's selection, a toilet seat 2003 for a user to sit on for relief, and a control panel 2004 for controlling the bidet's functions depending on situations.
With the bidet having the above-described construction, after a user sits on the toilet seat 2003 and relives himself or herself, he or she selects and presses either a bidet cleansing button or an anal cleaning button. Then, by the water pressure of the cleansing water stored in the water container of the body 2001, the selected bidet-cleansing nozzle (or anus nozzle) 2002 is projected with a certain distance while pressurizing a restoring spring (not shown). Thereafter, the cleansing water is sprayed with a pressure suitable to the selected function to thereby cleanse the pubic area or anus, which is then dried with a warm air, thereby carrying out the pubic/anal area cleansing work.
Recently, many additional functions have been added to the original functions of the bidets and thus its use has been widely extended. For example, it includes a massaging function bidet with a massage mode, in which the spray pressure of warm water is controlled; an infrared emitting function bidet with an infrared light emitter inside the toilet bowl; an aroma pack inserted nozzle tip used for reducing bad smell or inflammation treatment; a bidet with an electrolytic water generator to sterilize water without chemical treatments; and a bidet having an alarm for ringing the alarm in case where the relieving time is unusually extended.
However, these previous attempts including the massaging, the infrared emitting, the aroma pack, and the showering function are not directly directed to the core function of a bidet, but simply added to the common bidets. In fact, they are not the attempts to improve the convenience of relief or the users' hygienic.
Among them, the electrolytic water generator and the relieving time control alarm approaches can be considered as attempts in order to prevent genital and anal areas infections by using the electrolytic water as a cleansing water and reducing the relieving time. However, it makes the system more complicated because extra additional electrolytic water generator, timer and alarm devices are needed. Also, these approaches are not directly related to the solutions to the problems concerning the relief, such as constipation.
Accordingly, there is need to provide a multi-functional bidet, which does not need any additional equipment, while directly improving user's sanitary concerns such as constipation.